Still a California Girl, but it's not all oranges and avocados
Reading this story as a Californian is probably be a completely different experience than if I were reading it as someone from out of state, and even that would elicit a different reaction than someone who is from out of the country. Because I have grown up in California all my life, I feel a deeper connection not only to the places she describes and the people she mentions (I live five minutes from the Irvine family home, which has now been converted into a library with family pictures on the walls and a museum in the basement), but also to the points she makes about California’s inconsistencies. In school, California children still learn about the history of the “Golden State”, and the old mining towns are major attractions because of the artifacts they have from the Gold Rush. We tend to glorify the pioneer days as a time of ingenuity, fortitude, and bravery in forging a new world. This is true to some extent—the pioneers were very hardy and found ingenious ways to survive—but what we never learned about (maybe it was too taboo to talk about) was the way that these pioneers survived. Didion reveals in a very matter-of-fact way that it wasn’t all glorious—surviving was a dirty business. Learning that much of our early success came from the people that could exploit the most effectively really solidified the disparity between how we want to perceive reality and how it actually is. Interestingly, I think that the idealized perception of California—especially among out-of-staters—is changing as we move further into the future. The state realizes this, and it is trying to shift the focus to Californians as “free-thinkers” and “laid-back”, sun-soaked dreamers (there was actually a television commercial about this!!) in an effort to draw attention away from the looming problems that threaten our reputation. We don’t want to be obvious about the fact that maybe we allowed our “independence” to get away from us and slipped into dependence as a result.
As Didion mentioned, our state is increasingly reliant on the federal government for funding, and we are hugely in debt. Aside from that, our taxes are sky high in comparison to most other states. Clearly, we are not doing everything right, and all of our idealism cannot save us from that fact. The other day, I heard a commercial with the slogan, “Let’s Keep Our Golden State Golden”. This is so ironic, because California is anything but that nowadays (well, except for Northern California). In my Southern California hometown, there are about one hundred citrus trees in the backyard of the Irvine library. This is basically the remnant of what was once thousands of acres of farmland. It seems like every time I come home, a new development is springing up. These developments require new resources (water, electricity, etc.) and more dependence on outside sources (or, if we cannot obtain those, in-state taxes...yay!!!) The solar panels…which are springing up EVERYWHERE… are supposed to help our environment, but they put us further in debt, and do not do much when you think about all of the other resources we use to accommodate our rapid expansion. These are just some of the inconsistencies put into a modern context. Reading Didion’s take on them didn’t make me love California any less, but it definitely made me more aware of the discontinuities that we all need to pay attention to if we want to help alleviate the struggles that California is going through.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmkSUq_yDHI
This is the link to the California commercial…perpetuating the stereotype. :)